by ID Johnson
“Alright then,” he said, his smile reassuring her once again.
“Will it hurt at all?” she asked. She had asked that question earlier and she felt like she got a non-answer so she decided to try again.
Jamie cleared his throat, an indicator that Cadence was not going to like his answer. “There is a possibility that it might hurt a little at first, depending upon whether or not you are predisposed for a painful Transformation.”
Cadence glanced past him at Aaron who was avoiding eye contact with her now. Clearly, he had known about this possibility and left it out of his rousing recruiting speech.
“And what sorts of Hunters are predisposed toward painful Transformations?” she asked.
Jamie glanced at Aaron this time, and by his expression he could tell his leader would not be fielding this question. “Well, usually those who have the most genes to transform are the ones who are most affected by it.” Her eyes widened and she glanced at the faces at the foot of the bed and then back to Jamie. “But don’t worry,” he assured her again, “It will only last a few minutes, and then you’ll be out.”
“What do you mean by a few minutes?” she asked. “And what do you mean by excruciating?”
Jamie already had the first syringe ready to inject. Her arm had been cleaned, tourniquet wrapped, Hello Kitty Band-Aid ready to apply. “I promise you Cadence, you’ll be just fine,” he said, glancing at Eliza who was nodding. “There are a few minutes between when the serum begins to activate the DNA and the medication kicks in, but I’ll be able to help you through those.”
“Why can’t you just give the medication first then?” she asked.
He chuckled a bit, trying to lighten the mood a bit. “Because I don’t want to kill you,” he said.
She took that to mean he had tried it that way before, hopefully on lab rats or something, not actual Hunters, and it hadn’t worked out right.
“Alright. You all set?” he asked in that soothing voice.
She nodded, and he began to slide the needle into her arm. She had to look away. She had never been a big fan of needles, and the fact that she was growing more terrified by the minute would only make matters worse.
At first, there was just a slight burning sensation at the sight of the injection. Then, it started to radiate up and down her arm. Jamie was saying something about waiting two minutes before injecting the medication, but by the time he completed his sentence, Cadence could no longer hear a word he was saying. The serum was spreading through her body quickly, and she felt like surely her veins must literally be on fire. She could feel the tears rolling out of the corners of her eyes, but she was powerless to move or even speak. In fact, she was in so much pain, she was finding it hard just to breathe.
Upon her initial reaction, Aaron had crossed the room immediately. She could feel his hand on her arm, but she couldn’t really see him or anyone else. The room was a blur. She was slightly aware that he was giving some sort of command to Jamie, ordering him to do something, to do it now, and the next thing she knew Jamie had climbed on top of her. Initially, the weight of his body seemed to increase the pain, but after a few seconds, she began to feel a warmth spreading across her skin wherever their two bodies met. It was as if some sort of medicinal property was radiating out of him and into her. After a few moments, she began to feel the pain subside and felt her breathing return to normal.
Once she regained her ability to see, she realized her grandma was crying and Eliza had her arm around her shoulders. Aaron still had her arm in his hands, but she couldn’t turn her head to look at him because Jamie was blocking her view. Still, knowing he was standing there made her feel much better, despite the fact that she was currently furious that he had not mentioned this transformation being painful when he had initially told her about it.
Though the pain prolonged the passage of time, Cadence realized it hadn’t even been two minutes yet or else someone would have administered the medication. With Jamie sprawled on top of her and seeming to be having some issues himself, this responsibility fell to someone else.
In his weakened condition, Jamie could barely get the words out to ask Aaron to administer the medication. Luckily, Aaron knew the procedure and realized he was the most qualified to do so. The syringe was loaded and ready, he would just need to find a vein. He had seen Jamie complete this procedure dozens of times but he had never done it himself. He knew that it had to be done before Jamie was unable to continue to help Cadence and that, if she went back into her prior state of intolerable pain, there was a possibility that her body might start shutting down in an attempt to protect itself.
Jamie felt utterly helpless. He was afraid this might happen and had considered showing Aaron what to do just in case it was necessary. Though he had seen several Transformation patience go through similar cycles of pain at the beginning of the procedure, he had never seen a reaction like this. And, since Cadence was so very special to all of them at this point, he hated to see her suffer when he knew he could prevent it. Still, if Aaron failed to get the medication into her vein, it would do not good and could potentially cause grave danger.
Jamie could see Aaron checking Cadence’s arm for a vein. He knew she had a good one. Aaron should be able to use the same one that he had just injected the serum into. Though it may roll a bit, hopefully, he could use the injection sight from the last needle prick as a guideline. He could tell Aaron had already come to this conclusion as he began to feel around in that vicinity for the vein. Luckily, Cadence was completely still at this point and her arm was relaxed, giving him the opportunity to check it thoroughly.
Aaron thought he had located the same vein Jamie had just used. He lined the needle up and looked at Jamie, hoping to get some sort of indication that he was safe to precede. From his vantage point, Jamie concurred that it looked like the placement was right. He slowly nodded his head just once, giving Aaron the motivation he needed to follow through. He felt the needle slide into her vein and breathed a sigh of relieve. Slowly, he pushed down on the plunger, letting the medication flow into her body. As the last few drops exited the syringe, there was a collective exhale from those in observation. Aaron applied pressure to the injection sight with a cotton ball and secured it with the Band-Aid. He continued to apply gentle pressure for a few more seconds until he was sure that the bleeding had stopped.
After just a few moments, Cadence began to feel extremely sleepy. Her body was already warm from whatever it was Jamie was doing to take away her pain, but the medicine coursing through her veins seemed warmer still, and she began to feel completely relaxed.
Sensing that she had stabilized, Jamie began to attempt to pull himself off of her. He could hardly left his head by himself, however, and he relied on his teammates to lift him up off of her. Once he lost contact with Cadence, he began to restore himself and felt a wave of energy wash over him. “I think I’ll be okay in a few moments,” he said to Eliza and Aaron who were moving him towards the door. He really wanted to stay with Cadence until she was fully asleep.
“I know you want to stay,” Aaron said, “But you’ve got to take care of yourself, too. That was a huge drain to your system and you need to replenish.” He and Eliza continued to walk Jamie to the door.
“Take him to my bedroom,” Janette yelled after them. “He can rest in there.” Eliza acknowledged that they had heard her and they made their way out into the hall.
Janette stepped around the side of the bed. Cadence’s eyes were barely open and her breathing had become deep and slow. “How are you doing, darling?”
Cadence was aware that her grandmother was nearby, but she wasn’t sure exactly what she was saying. She felt much better now, so much better. In fact, she couldn’t remember a time when she had felt any better than she did right this moment.
“Do you want me to stay?” Janette asked, seeing that her granddaughter was quickly falling into a deep slumber. Cadence did not answer and so she lingered for a moment, wishing there was something s
he could do. Watching her go through such a painful episode was almost more than she could bear, and she almost wished Cadence had never agreed to do this.
After a moment, Eliza and Aaron returned. They both approached the bed and could see that Cadence was almost out.
“How’s Jamie?” Janette asked.
“He’ll be okay,” Eliza replied. “He just needs to rest for a few hours. I’ve never seen something zap him so quickly,” she added.
Janette nodded. “Well,” I think our little princess is about out,” she said, gazing down at her granddaughter’s slumbering face. “Do you think she’ll be okay now?” she asked Aaron.
He nodded. “Yes, I think she’ll be just fine.” He knew there had been a possibility that Cadence would have some pain with her Transformation simply because of all of the coding on her DNA that would be activated. He had never expected anything like that. This was one time when he was especially glad that Jamie was a Healer.
“Alright then,” Janette, nodded. “I guess there are other things we should be doing.” She squeezed Cadence’s arm and whispered, “Sweet dreams, my darling.”
Eliza glanced down at Cadence and smiled a sympathetic smile before meeting Janette at the foot of the bed and escorting her out of the room. She paused for a moment to see if Aaron would follow, but he seemed to be staying. She wasn’t quite sure why he would stay, clearly Cadence was asleep and there was nothing more he needed to do, so she shook her head in confusion as she exited the room.
Aaron wasn’t quite sure why he was still there either. He had promised Cadence that he would stay with her until she was asleep and he had done that. Though her eyelids fluttered every once in a while, he knew she was out and would remain so for quite some time. He knelt down next to her again, studying her face. Though her lids were closed and he could no longer see those curious brown eyes, he couldn’t help but find himself reflecting on just how beautiful she truly was. In the brief seconds during the Transformation gone wrong when he thought there was a slight possibility that they might lose her, he didn’t find himself wondering what his team would do if she was no longer able to help them defeat Holland; rather, he found himself pondering what he would personally do if something happened to her. This feeling both excited and terrified him at the same time. In his position, it was never a good idea to become emotionally attached to anyone, particularly a Hunter he was attempting to protect. As much as one attempted to always make rational decisions, nothing was as likely to interfere with decision making like emotional reaction. And so, he had attempted to avoid emotions as much as possible. Though it sometimes made others describe him as too direct or impersonal, this style of leadership had worked for him for more years than he cared to count, and he knew it was not in his best interest to let Cadence or anyone else interfere with that.
And yet, he couldn’t help but remain next to her bed, watching her sleep, for much longer than he intended. Just another sign that he needed to find a way to distance himself from her emotionally before it was too late. She was perfectly still, except for the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. She looked peaceful, even happy. He hoped she was dreaming sweet dreams of more innocent days when Vampires were only Halloween legends and the only guarding she needed was from scrapes to the knee. He stood and pulled the blankets up more tightly around her. As he leaned more closely to her face, he couldn’t help himself and, before he even fully realized what he was doing, he gently kissed her on the forehead. “Sweet dreams, Cadence,’ he whispered, leaving her to slumber. When she awoke, everything would be different. And then, the real work would begin.
Chapter Seven
Cadence had not awoken from her medicated slumber in twenty-four hours as Jamie had initially predicted. In fact, it had taken over thirty-six hours for her to finally start to come around, and even with that it took another two hours before she could fully open her eyes or communicate. When she found out that it was Saturday afternoon, rather than Friday evening, she was stunned. But Jamie assured her that she was fine, everything had gone according to plan, and she was just unlike any patient he had ever Transformed so she reacted slightly differently.
She had stayed at her grandmothers that Saturday night, Jamie and Eliza both keeping an eye on her to ensure everything was going as expected. She had not seen Aaron since he injected her with the medication, and she was hesitant to ask where he might be. She was aware that he was extremely busy and knew he would likely show up when she least expected it. Still, she soon realized that she was beginning to miss him.
Aaron had been checking on her, however. Though it wasn’t necessary for him to question his team as to her progress, he could simply observe through their eyes when they were in her room attending to her. He noted that Jamie tended to spend a considerable amount of time in her room watching her sleep, which he found a bit odd, but at the same time he didn’t mind because if Jamie was there, he was virtually there himself. Still, he intended to leave some distance between himself and Cadence and allowed her to heal without his interference. He knew that he would be seeing her quite a bit once she began her formal training in the weeks to come.
Early Sunday morning, Cadence hugged her grandmother good-bye. “Thank you so much for everything,” she said, holding back tears.
Janette squeezed her granddaughter tightly. “You be careful, now” she said. The part of her heart that had always hoped Cadence would never Transform began to activate parts of her mind that ran through all of the possibilities of what might happen to her sweet granddaughter now that she would be hunting Vampires for a living.
“I will be,” she said, wiping away her grandma’s tears. “Don’t worry about me.”
“I’ll try not to,” Janette nodded, knowing it would be difficult. “Listen, Cadence, I have just one piece of advice for you. Listen carefully, when you are conflicted, listen first to that still, small voice inside you, the one that led you straight to Drew. If you put that voice first, beyond any voice in your head, you can’t go wrong.”
Cadence pondered this advice, nodding, but not quite sure she understood. When her grandmother said “any” voice inside of her head, did she mean her own conscience or chatter on the eye implant she would soon receive? Though she wasn’t certain, she was pretty sure she actually meant both.
“Alright,” she replied. Giving her one last quick hug, Cadence slid into the Aventador, she waved good-bye one last time and Eliza pulled out of the driveway and began her fast and furious drive back to Shenandoah.
“How is it that you can drive so quickly? Aren’t you worried about tickets?” she asked.
Eliza smiled. “Nope. IAC catches police chatter, too. I know exactly where every police vehicle is within at least a 100 mile radius.”
“What about other cars?” Cadence asked as they flew up on a much slower going vehicle.
“My reflexes are at least ten times faster than the most high performing humans,” she explained. “And, I’m trained to anticipate exactly what a human will do under specific traffic conditions—or any conditions for that matter—ninety-nine percent of the time. You’ll see,” she added.
Cadence nodded. She was beginning to see what Eliza was talking about. It seemed to her that the other cars were moving much differently than they were. While their movement was extremely precise and accurate, the other cars seemed to meander. The other drivers’ turns and corrections were much slower than Eliza’s. As her view of the world began to change, she became fascinated with her new perspective. It was almost as if she could slow down or speed up movement on demand, depending upon how much attention she gave the item or person in motion. It was really quite exhilarating.
“How are you feeling?” Eliza asked as she continued to weave in and out of traffic. Most of the other drivers didn’t even seem to notice she had been there as she made her way by. No one seemed angry, no one flipped her the bird. They just kept on driving without truly taking notice of the blur flying past their windows.
Cadenc
e considered the question for a moment. “Honestly, I feel about the same,” she admitted. “I mean, other than this weird sense of perspective, you know, like motion looking different than before, I really don’t feel like much has changed.”
Eliza nodded. “That’s good. Considering that we didn’t change anything in your body, we just activated something that was already there, you really wouldn’t expect to feel too different. Just wait until you run for the first time, though. Or swim. Or have sex.” The last one made Cadence’s eyebrows go up. “Trust me,” Eliza said. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
“Okay,” Cadence said, letting it go at that. “When will I start my training?” Cadence asked.
“Well, Aaron wanted you to have some time with your family, and do you realize that Drew’s funeral is tomorrow?”
She nodded her head. Jamie had mentioned it.
So, he thought you would want tomorrow off as well. Possibly Tuesday although it might be Wednesday. You know you’re going to need to go shopping, right?”
The thought had honestly not occurred to her. “Where? Black Leather Is Us?”
Eliza chuckled, “Oh, girl. Don’t you worry. I’ve got this covered. Besides, you’re not a Guardian. You’re not required to wear black. Though I don’t know why anyone would ever choose to wear any other color.”
Cadence was a bit nervous as black had never been her color. Perhaps there was some other hue she could wrap her mind around that Eliza would feel would be appropriate. “Alright then,” she said, going back over the calendar in her mind. “So, how many weeks of training will it take before I am ready to kick Holland’s ass?”
Eliza pondered the question for a moment. “Well, everyone is different. Aaron usually doesn’t want anyone to go out into the field as an active until they’ve had at least a months worth of intense training. He has some pretty rigorous requirements and assessments you will have to pass. I’m not sure who has assigned to train you either,” she added.